Re: Picture quality

Right, now I understand.

You might want to get the latest drivers for your Hauppauge card from http://www.shspvr.com/mce.html. I noticed some better picture quality from the latest driver set, particularly in the dark scenes.

Also, download and play with the Hauppauge tweak tool. There should be lots of settings in there that will help you tweak your image quality.
http://www.cask-of-amontillado.com/pvr_tweak.html

Pete

Scott Micale wrote:
I am coming out DVI on my video card to my 15" LCD. It still is a little dark. My TV looks about the same as my LCD, still getting the dark areas of the screen. That is hooked to my XBox.


"Peter Near [MCE MVP]" <peter@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:uwF9cI1dFHA.412@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

In my experience with an ATI Radeon 9800, the Svideo output wasn't very good. That generation of cards (and all before it) really used quite bad quality TV-out chipsets. I would guess that yours fits into that category as well. I have no idea if the newer cards are any better.

The XBox should look a bit better than the SVideo out from your ATI card. It is generally more crisp, but the MPEG2 decoder seems to output more artifacts than it should (but crisp artifacts). ;-) Also note that Xbox video out quality apparently varies by generation - older XBoxes apparently don't look as good as newer ones.

Finally, the HP and Linksys extenders produce a fantastic SVideo picture. It really is amazingly better than anything I've ever seen coming out of a PC's video card via SVideo.

If you can output via DVI or component, I've heard that those options generally look really good coming out of the PC. I haven't tested, since I only have traditional tv sets (no HDTV).

Pete

Scott Micale wrote:

JW,

I am using a AIW 8500 DV card. Just using the graphics side of it because they say the tuner side is not compatible with MCE. Would this card be part of my problem? You mention S-Video not being very good. If my receiver only outputs S-Video, RCA, and Coax. Are my only option then to get a receiver that outputs to DVI or component? Component is Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow right. One that has the 4 plugs on each end?


"JW" <anonymous@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:%237hZ18zdFHA.2664@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Other quality factors.
The quality of the hardware acceleration provided to your DVD Decoder by your graphics card is also important since if the quality of the decoding and conversion from 480i to 480p is poor so will be any output.
The current generation of video cards also have poor video quality when using the S-Video connection instead of VGA, component, or DVI. (This is demonstrated by the MCE Extenders which decode and create S-Video or component 480i video having much better PQ than MCE using the same encoded program from the tuner card.
The quality of the Video card is also important if you are upscaling the 480P output from the decoder to a higher resolution since the better codes do a better job of inventing the additional pixels in the higher resolution.
If you to the NVIDIA Website you can read about their "PureVideo technology" which requires a 6600 card the 71.84 drivers or later and the 1.0.67 Decoder. This description discuses the various techniques for improving PC Video output.

"Scott Micale" <hrm_admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:e092kvzdFHA.1136@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Peter,
I just bought this card and everyone said get the Hauppauge. Now you are saying the ATI is better. I really don't want to have to switch cards. You mentioned there might be an upgrade to MCE coming out. How soon may that happen? Would it fix any of these problems I am having?


"Peter Near [MCE MVP]" <peter@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:eYbSRczdFHA.1036@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Scott:

This came up on another thread as well recently. Unfortunately, your DirecTivo has somewhat of an unfair advantage over MCE. It gets the digital signal from the satellite and records it straight to disk. Directv will not allow the digital signal to leave their box, so the only option for MCE is to take an analog feed.

MCE takes an analog feed off of SVideo from the Directv box. It then encodes it to digital in order to write it to the hard drive. Then is decodes it to analog again to to allow it to be displayed on your TV. This accounts for the quality difference between the two.

Primarily responsible for the quality in your setup is the Hauppauge PVR-500, which is a decent card. I've noticed some blocky issues when playing back Hauppauge video over the XBox. In my tests, the ATI TV Wonder Elite performed somewhat better using the XBox extender.
http://www.thenears.com/?p=98

Cheers,
Pete

Scott Micale wrote:


I just finished setting up my MCE and am wondering about my picture quality versus my DirecTV Tivo box. I have a Hughes GAEB0A receiver hooked to my MCE with a Gateway 15" LCD attached to it. The picture quality is ok, but not really clear like my Tivo box that is connected to my 57" Toshiba Widescreen Projection TV. On my TV I have my XBox connected to hit using the XBox Extender. The picture there using the xbox extender is not clear either, like when I switch inputs to my Tivo box. What would cause this and is there anyway to clear it up? On My MCE I am connected to the Hughes receiver via the S-Video port and have my coax coming into the receiver from the dish. I have a AIW 8500DV graphic card (Which I know is not on the MCE compatibility list) and a Hauppauge Win-TV PVR 500MCE Tuner. I was thinking about bringing my Tivo box up and hooking it to my MCE and see if that makes a difference. I am not sure it will. Any help or ideas on this would be great.

Thanks




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